Today’s project is a before and after of a vintage telephone table that was done for Kelly Sherman Design and can be purchased here.
Since this is our second telephone / gossip table I have been calling her Gossip (squared). When I write it on paper I use the tiny little 2 to mean square but I am technologically impaired and can’t figure out how to do that on here.
I found this gossip table at our local Habitat for Humanity store in pretty bad shape. The finish was flaking off to reveal an awful, bright red stain underneath. The fabric covering the seat was a very grandmothery print – not my gram of course because she’s very cool – over another layer of badly stained stripped mess. The batting inside was just as lovely as you are imagining.
Below you can see Opie modeling this beauty –
Before!
The refinish had a learning curve. After sanding the finish off there was the red stain to deal with. The picture above doesn’t capture it properly. After the clear finish was gone this table was fire-engine red. Red. And I wanted to paint it white. It was recommended to me I use a shellac primer which would cover better and help the stain not to bleed through. Since I didn’t have this in a eco-friendly version lying around I improvised. I first gave it a coat of a clear coat from Vermont Natural Coatings and then continued with primer and paint by Safecoat.
I didn’t have any kind of control group to compare to so I don’t know if it worked better than just primer. But either way I think it turned out pretty alright.
After
